


You Cannot Have One Without The Other

by Fanfiction_Generator, Polgara6



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, As in Ed feels guilty about how he treated Oz, But also as in they're both guilty of murder because it's Gotham, Canonical Character Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s03e07 Red Queen, F/M, Founders Dinner, Guilt, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:47:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25777648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fanfiction_Generator/pseuds/Fanfiction_Generator, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polgara6/pseuds/Polgara6
Summary: In the aftermath of the Founder's Dinner, Ed starts to realize that he has a decision to make— Oswald or Isabella. The choice ends up being easier than he expects.
Relationships: Isabella/Edward Nygma, Oswald Cobblepot/Edward Nygma
Comments: 5
Kudos: 78





	You Cannot Have One Without The Other

“Well, Ed, you would not believe the night I’m—” Oswald’s sentence cut off as he entered the room to see Ed and Isabella kissing.

“Oswald, good evening,” greeted Ed, lighting up as usual when he saw his friend.

_“There’s a reason for that,”_ said his Reflection, sneering at him from the corner. _“Face it, Ed, Isabella’s nice— not that I like that sort of thing, but you seem to —but Oswald’s the one who you really want to come home to at the end of the day.”_

“This is Isabella.”

“Oh…” said Oswald, smiling, but it looked forced. “We’ve met, actually— would you excuse me?” Ed noticed that his friend was shaking, knuckles white from gripping his cane too tightly.

_“Look at him. One night with this woman and you’ve completely abandoned the only person who’s ever cared about you. About us.”_

_That’s not true,_ thought Ed. _Isabella knows about Kristen, and she’s still here._

_“Yeah, but does she know about Dougherty? Or Pinkney? Or that other man who found you burying her? What about the bomb? Do you really think that Isabella could accept the real you?”_

“Isabella,” said Ed, deciding to ignore his counterpart. “Would you like to stay the night?”

“I’d love to,” she replied, wrapping her arms around his neck and bringing her lips to his.

As their kiss deepened, she moved backward, pulling him towards the bed and tugging at his jacket. He shrugged it off himself, draping it carefully over the back of a chair, but when she reached for the buttons on his shirt, he stopped her.

“Can we—” Ed gasped as her lips moved to his neck. “Can we slow down?”

“Of course we can,” said Isabella, smiling at him.

Despite his efforts, Ed’s mind keeps drifting back towards Oswald. _(“There’s a reason for that, you know.”)_ This had been the first time since the election that Ed hadn’t been there after an important meeting, to help Oswald go over whatever information he’d learned, and to start planning their next move. _I shouldn’t feel guilty,_ he told himself. _I’m allowed to have a night off once in a while. “Yes, but this isn’t just any night, is it? You know how important the Founders Dinner is. And this is the second time you’ve left him for this woman.”_

“—did you bother inviting me here if you didn’t want to have sex?” Ed started at the harsh tone of Isabella’s voice, realizing that he'd been talking to his other self for several minutes, completely ignoring the woman in bed next to him.

“I— I don’t— well, I do want to, but…” he trailed off.

_“But you’re too preoccupied worrying about your best friend,”_ supplied his Reflection helpfully. _“Your best friend who’s currently lying in bed by himself, wondering why you’ve abandoned him.”_

_I’m not abandoning him. Just because I’m with Isabella doesn’t mean I don’t care about Oswald._

_“He’s probably in pain, too. Did you see how pale and shaky he was? You know what stress does to his leg. Honestly how can you even call yourself his friend right now?”_

“Edward?” Isabella’s voice broke him out of his ruminations. “I’m sorry for pressuring you. Really, I don’t care whether we have sex; I just want to be close to you.” She curled into his arm, resting her head on his chest. Ed smiled down at her, thinking about how lucky he was to have someone like her in his life.

\---

_Ed found himself back in the basement of Arkham, surrounded by horrible experiments that weren’t quite people anymore— not after what had been done to them. He was on the verge of panicking, backing towards the elevators, when one of the doors at the end of the hall opened and Dr. Strange stepped out._

_“Mr. Nygma,” he greeted, a cold smile curling his lips. “We’ve been expecting you.”_

_Against every instinct he had, Ed followed the man through the door, not knowing what to expect, and freezing in terror when he saw who was inside. Oswald and Isabella, each of them strapped to a gurney, electrodes fixed to their temples._

_“You see, Mr. Nygma,” said Dr. Strange, “I’ve thought about what you said to Ms. Peabody, and I have to agree; we are going to need to do something about Jim Gordon, and you could be very useful to us. That being said, you still need to be punished for your escape attempt.” He guided Ed’s hand to the wall, where there were two levers. “Pull the one on the left, and you electrocute Oswald. Pull the one on the right and you electrocute Isabella.”_

_“And if I don’t make a decision?” asked Ed, already knowing the answer._

_“I don’t believe you require an answer to that question, Mr. Nygma,” replied Dr. Strange, leaving the room and shutting the door behind him._

_He wished he could say that he agonized over the decision, but in the end there was only one answer._

\---

Ed woke up to see a figure creeping towards the doorway.

“Isabella?” he called out. The figure turned, and Ed could see a knife glinting in the moonlight. “Isabella,” he repeated, dread coursing through his body. “What are you doing?”

“It’s okay, Edward,” she said, her soothing voice contrasting with the blade in her hands. “I’ll be right back; I just need to take care of something.”

In a flash Ed was out of bed, grabbing the knife with one hand and shoving her against the wall with the other.

“It— it was for you,” Isabella gasped. “He was interfering— getting in the way of our love.”

Ed didn’t even realize he was holding the lamp until he knocked her out with it.

\---

Oswald was right. That’s all Ed could think as he carried Isabella’s body to the basement, securing her in the chair he and Oswald used when they needed (or wanted) to torture someone. Oswald had warned him that he was falling too fast, that Isabella’s similarity to Kristen was a red flag. And Ed hadn’t listened to him. Oswald, the one person who was always on Ed’s side.

_“Even when you abandoned him. You turned him away when he got out of Arkham, but he stuck by you. He sent you gifts, visited you… he even made them release you. He let you move into his house.”_

_I know._

_“He made you his Chief of Staff. All those years you spent hoping your colleagues at the GCPD would appreciate you?_ He _gave you that.”_

_I know._

_“And you threw all of that away over a woman you’ve known for a_ week _, just because she looked like your ex. Your ex who didn’t appreciate you either, if I remember correctly.”_

_I know I know I know I know. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. You were right. He was right. I was so stupid. I need to make it up to him._

Ed’s thoughts spiraled as he recalled all the ways he’d snubbed Oswald in favor of Isabella, even from their very first meeting. Oswald had invited him to dinner, saying that there was something important he needed to tell him, and Ed had stood him up, forgetting all about his plans the moment he caught sight of Isabella. He wondered for a minute what Oswald had been planning to say, before he forced himself to focus. He could worry about that later. Right now, he had to apologize to Oswald.

\---

Oswald’s room was dark, but Ed could make out his sleeping form in the moonlight, curled into a ball on the bed with the sheets thrown off from tossing and turning. Even in the dark, Ed could tell Oswald was having a nightmare.

_“I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry.”_ His Reflection’s voice and his own blurred together in his mind.

“Oswald,” he whispered, placing his hand on the other man’s shoulder. “Oswald, you’re okay— it’s just a dream.”

“Ed?” Oswald’s voice was disoriented, still half-asleep. “I thought you were with Isabelle.”

“Isabella,” Ed corrected automatically. “But she’s actually why I’m here. Oswald, I’m so sorry.”

“You’re… you’re sorry?”

“Yes, I’m sorry,” repeated Ed, because he could apologize a million times and it still wouldn’t make up for how he had treated his friend. “I saw Isabella and she looked so much like Kristen and I thought it was my chance to make everything right, but I realize now that there’s nothing that I need to fix because my past actions, no matter how conflicted I may have felt about them at the time, are what led me to you and Oswald… Oswald I wouldn’t trade you for anything.” He reached for Oswald’s hand, only then noticing a long thin cut that ran across it. “Oswald,” he asked, trying to stay calm. “What exactly happened at the Founders Dinner?”

“What? Why would you— oh.” Oswald glanced down at his hand, seemingly noticing the cut for the first time. “Oh. An insane madman held all of us at gunpoint and tried to force us to drink this wine that he brought, which was definitely poisoned with something going by the threats that he made, and then the GCPD showed up and arrested him (which was awful in its own way— you know how much I hate feeling indebted to Jim Gordon and his band of brainless oafs), and by the time they left— you know how careless they all are —there was a lot of broken glass, and I must have cut my hand at some point.”

“Hold still,” Ed switched on the bedside lamp and examined the cut, noting with relief that it was shallow and wouldn’t require anything other than cleaning and bandaging. Satisfied, he continued, “As your Chief of Staff, I think that I should go down to the GCPD tomorrow to see if I can learn anything about the man who threatened you or what his plan was. And as your friend, may I just say that I’m glad you’re okay, and that if I ever get my hands on this man, he will regret ever being born.”

Oswald smiled at him, looking more content than he had in the past week. “Thank you, Ed. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“I hope you know, Oswald, I would do anything for you.” Ed had said those words before, in the aftermath of the election. He’d promised Oswald that he could count on him, but then he hadn’t been there when Oswald had needed him. He’d failed his only friend. “From now on, I will always be there for you.”

\---

Isabella was conscious by the time Ed and Oswald made it downstairs, struggling against her bonds with a pleading expression on her face.

“Please, Edward,” she begged, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Please, you have to help me. You love me, I know you do. Let me go, and we can be together. We can be happy.”

_“Shut up!”_ snapped Ed and his Reflection in unison. Ed continued, the anger in his voice shocking both Isabella and Oswald. “You— you tried to kill Oswald! How do you think I could ever forgive you for that?”

“Because I love you, Edward. I see your faults, and I love you for them anyway. Do you really think there’s another woman who could love and accept you the way that I do?”

“Oswald does,” said Ed. “Oswald has always been there for me. He’s the only person who has always accepted me for who I really am, _and you tried to kill him!_ ” Without thinking, he slapped her across the face, watching with satisfaction as her expression turned angry.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” Isabella hissed. “And after everything I did for you!”

“What do you mean?”

“ _What do I mean?_ ” she shrieked. “Do you think it’s a coincidence that I look exactly like Kristen? Do you know how hard it was, how many surgeries I got, to make everything perfect??”

“Why would you do that though?” asked Ed, confused and rather disturbed by her admission.

“I’ve been in love with you, ever since you first came to the library, back when you were still at the GCPD. You wouldn’t remember me, of course; I looked so different back then, and anyway you were so clever and handsome… you’d never have noticed someone as plain as me… Then I read about what you did to Kristen, and how you ended up in Arkham, and that’s when I realized what my purpose was. I knew my job was to fix you, to make you whole again. We can be together, and you can be everything you were ever meant to be.”

There was a shocked silence as Ed and Oswald tried to process what she had said.

“Oswald,” said Ed calmly, smiling coldly at his ex— soon to be late ex —girlfriend. “Would you like to do the honors?”

“I’d love to,” replied Oswald, slicing his knife across Isabella’s throat. A fountain of bright red blood cascaded from the wound, covering both of them and providing physical proof that the last obstacle to their relationship was permanently extinguished.

For a moment, the two of them stared at each other in silence, basking in the reassurance that they were together, that things had returned to normal. Finally, Oswald spoke.

“Ed. I’ve been trying to tell you something for a long time, but I haven’t known how to do it, or maybe I’ve just been too afraid that you won’t feel the same way. But my mother used to tell me ‘Life only gives you one true love, Oswald. When you find it, run to it.’” Oswald took a deep breath and continued, “The thing I’ve been wanting to tell you all this time is… I love you.”

Ed smiled, blinking back tears. He took Oswald’s hands in his and replied, “I can’t be bought, but I can be stolen with one glance. I’m worthless to one, but priceless to two. What am I?”

“Love,” said Oswald, looking up at Ed’s face in wonderment. “You… you love me too?”

Rather than responding, Ed leaned down, tilting his face towards Oswald’s and kissing him, happier than he’d ever been in his life.

  
  


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